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When you start a WordPress website, what is one of the first few things that pops up in your head? It should have a good design, it should have good readability, it should be FAST. The latter might not be the first thing that you think of, but it is arguably the most important factor to consider.

Remember the last time it took a website to load a millisecond more than usual. You must have blamed your internet connection but it might be more than that. A slow website can be a result of:

What Is A CDN?

A CDN or Content Delivery Network is a system of networks which stores static data on your website. Static data from your website include:

Images

Javascript files

CSS files

Media

In more simpler terms, when a visitor lands on your website, the content is fetched from a server, which has stored all of your website’s data. The server is located at a central location which is being accessed by every user that is landing on your webpage. An unexpected traffic can cause that server to crash and affect your load time.

Since CDN is a network of servers, they are spread all over the world and your static data is stored on all of them. Upon a visit, the CDN redirects the user to the server which is closest to that location. The proximity helps improve load time.

In this article, we will go through some of the best CDN providers for WordPress.

Let’s begin!

Amazon Cloudfront

Launched in 2008, Amazon Cloudfront is one of the most popular and powerful CDN providers out there. One of the biggest reasons why Cloudfront has done extremely well is because Amazon already had the infrastructure in place.

Cloudfront stores huge media files, images, and other static data in its servers which are spread throughout the globe. This dramatically increases load time due to a large number of servers. These servers are one of the most reliable hardware in the world and you can expect zero downtime with these machines.

Amazon Cloudfront comes loaded with exciting features. One of which is a management console that allows graphical manipulation of your account without any code. Other features include:

Options for custom SSL

Deliver dynamic content to users

Wildcard cName support

It doesn’t only improve your website speed but also provides security against a DDos attack. Amazon Cloudfront absorbs such attacks which ultimately results in an increase in the website’s uptime.

Cloudfront’s pricing is based on the location and the usage. Traffic going to the United States will cost you the cheapest, while India and Australia are the most expensive.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a content delivery and a security providing service that enhances the speed of a website and increases security against hackers and other attacks. It started out as a project to provide security to websites.

The focus quickly shifted towards enhancing website performance while increasing security. The combination, website security and performance service is quite unique and this makes Cloudflare stand out from the rest of the CDN service providers.

Cloudfare’s performance enhancement uses a global content delivery network. So it won’t matter where your users are coming from, they will experience a faster load time. Your returning visitors will experience even faster speed because of its automatic static content caching.

The installation is as easy as it gets. You have to fill a signup form and direct Cloudflare to your current host. It will look up your DNS info and will display it to you so that you can select which ones you want Cloudflare to optimize. Anyone who has ever signed up to a service before can easily get their head around it.

The CDN service starts with a free account. It is perfect for personal blogs and smaller websites.

Incapsula

Launched in 2009, Incapsula offers a business-oriented solution that is focused on website security and performance. It is a cloud-based platform that uses global content delivery network to improve website speed and performance. Moreover, it takes care of load balancing, failover services and DDos protection.

Incapsula uses proprietary caching technology to enhance website speed and provides a better user experience. It does an exceptional job in caching static data and delivering it quickly to users. It also identifies cachable dynamic data through its machine-learning algorithms.

Incapsula provides DDos protection with its Behemoth, a DDos mitigation application. This application can filter 170 Gps worth of traffic. Getting through a Behemoth is almost impossible for a DDos attack. It is fair to say that with Incapsula, your website is in safer hands.

The pricing plans start from $50 per month, which is great for professional blogs. For smaller businesses, the business plan is the most popular.

Stackpath (Previously MaxCDN)

Stackpath is one the most affordable CDN providers for WordPress out there. MaxCDN caches all the static data on your website and stores it on its servers. You don’t have to upload all your static data manually. You also get a custom URL with which you can access all your files on their servers. These servers will quickly provide the data back to the users when they access your website.

It uses “Edgecashing” to cache all the https files. This allows your website to handle possibly any amount of traffic coming directly from the web. The servers are spread across the globe to ensure availability to users coming from any part of the world.

With Stackpath, you also have more control over your bandwidth. Not only that, you also have how you want your content to be served. They call it “Edgerules”.

But here is what makes Stackpath stand out. You can use “Edgesecurity” to add an extra layer of security to your website. With this feature, you can restrict a particular content to certain visitors. You can basically control who can and can’t access a particular piece of content. That‘s pretty amazing!

Stackpathis very affordable with an initial plan starting from $10 per month.

KeyCDN

KeyCDN is yet another CDN service provider that comes with all the features you can expect from a CDN. It enhances your WordPress website’s performance and decreases load time and that too at a very affordable rate. It has some very unique features that you should definitely know about if you are choosing a CDN provider.

You can create multiple zones very easily using KeyCDN. Users can designate zones according to their ease and this process is made extremely simple with KeyCDN. A site owner can create multiple zones using custom expires headers and hotlink protection.

KeyCDN allocates servers dynamically so that your users can access content with better speed and more convenience. KeyCDN’s data centers are located in different cities of Europe, Asia, and America.

The pricing plans change with location and usage. The cost can go as low as $0.04. It also has a free trial so that you can get a hold of things.

Fastly

Founded in 2011, Fastly has quickly grown into a powerful CDN provider specifically for WordPress websites. Fastly uses big SSD so that it can store bigger data and push the cache hit rate up to 99%. Customers usually use Fastly’s public CDN service and pay just for the caching service. Customers with higher traffic use privately-managed appliances so that their incremental cost is low.

The Streaming Media feature provides streaming on your website without any complicated installation. Fastly effectively caches videos from your website to ensure that users get smooth video streaming on your website.The delivery accelerator ensures the data is delivered as fast as possible at quicker load times.

The pricing starts from $0.12/month.

CDN77

CDN77 has quickly built its reputation as the technology innovation leader. It was the first CDN to implement HTTP/2 and Brotli compression algorithm for example.

Its integration with WordPress is very easy and their live chat support is professional, to-the-point and quick. CDN77 accelerates and secures your content through 32 locations all around the world.

Their pricing is transparent and you get to choose between Pay-As-You-Go and Monthly Plans. This offers huge flexibility and no commitments.

There is a free 14-day trial with no credit card required.

Get Cachin!

While deciding to pick a CDN provider for your WordPress website, you must understand your usage and requirements. A website owner must do everything to avoid slow loading time because nothing diverts a user from your website than a slow website.

This article covered the top CDN service providers for WordPress websites. These are the most reliable and popular ones there are today and no matter what your requirement is, you will find the one that you need from the list above.

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About Author

Moeez is ‘The’ blogger in charge of WPblog. He loves to interact and learn about WordPress with people in the WordPress community. Outside his work life, Moeez spends time hanging out with his friends, playing Xbox and watching football on the weekends. You can get in touch with him at moeez[at]wpblog.com.

WPblog is a WordPress resource website that regularly publishes content covering WordPress themes, plugins, hosting, news and ecommerce. WPblog aims to educate WordPress users about the best WordPress products and best practices so that they can create amazing websites.